Galloway Police Shut Down Non-Essential Tobacco Business

When you own and operate a business in New Jersey you need to follow the rules, even if the rules change.

Galloway Township Police Chief Donna Higbee says her department forced the owner of The Tobacco Outlet, 254 E. Jimmie Leeds Road to shut down Friday. The business, deemed non-essential during the COVID-19 crisis, was continuing to operate despite 3 warnings from police in the last 4 weeks.

Higbee says after all three warnings, the owner, Rafi Naman, 39, of Galloway, continued operating the business out of the rear of the business. Naman was charged with two counts of 2 counts of violation of the Governors Executive Order #107.

Here is what Chief Higbee said about the situation:

Upon being alerted by other local business owners currently closed due to being non-essential, that Naman was continuing to operate in violation out of the rear of his store and that he posted he was opened on his social media, Galloway Police arrived today to find him personally inside the store selling to customers. He was again advised to close and formally charged with the Violation of the Governors Order under the direction of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.

These are the types of incidents that we try to avoid with our business owners but have no other choice in defense of our compliant business owners. We want to thank all our business owners in town and hope that Mr. Naman does not require any further attention from the police department with regard to this matter. His actions are unsafe, clearly defiant and inconsiderate of other business owners in similar circumstances.